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For those who are fascinated by watching slow motion train wrecks, the Obama White House is giving a demonstration. The trick is to pretend the other side wants to play a nice game with fair rules and not to notice while they’re destroying you.
Lesson No. 45,783 consists of the predictable Republican Response to Obama’s invitation to have a civilized discussion of health care reform options.
As I understand Obama’s proposal, our side, ineptly represented by people who don’t really represent us or what they promised and we wanted, and their side, ably represented by unprincipled barbarians, will meet at the White House, discuss the merits of Joe Lieberman’s ideas to, uh, "save" the city and the barbarians’ ideas to ransack it. Then Congress will vote on something between what we didn’t want and what the barbarians demand, and both sides will take the result to the American people.
Sounds very democratic, and very stupid.
The Republican/barbarian response, demanding the White House unilaterally abandon the Congressional health reform plans already passed and promise not to use the Democratic majority to pass anything, is equivalent to demanding that the besieged White House lower the drawbridge, drain the moat and invite the invading hordes into the city. Now that’s audacity of hope!
The White House press secretary promptly put out a statement saying, the WH doesn’t want to give up on the idea of saving the city, but it will think about it. [Update III: From Sam Stein, it's now "no." Good.]
For those of you who don’t understand multi- or non-dimensional chess, this is how it works.
Obama offers to sit down and play chess.
The Republicans bring a sledge hammer down on the table; there will be no rules except force, they say.
Obama again offers to sit down and play chess.
Republicans say Obama is coddling terrorists.
Obama again offers to sit down and play chess.
Republicans threaten to kill the jobs bills.
Obama offers to sit down and play checkers, he takes black, starts with only two pieces.
Republicans threaten to kill financial reform.
Obama suggests a game of hopscotch.
Republicans throw the chalk in the river, vote "no" on funding sidewalks.
Obama . . .
Dear Mr. President: Your Administration and the whole concept of government acting in the public interest are under siege from a mob of barbarians. They’re at war with you and with us. If you can only think in chess terms, they want your castle, they want to capture your Queen, kill your knights, imprison your bishops and topple the King. They’re willing to kill all of your pawns and all of theirs too, to win. They will show no mercy.
You need to fight them for chris’ sake, for your sake, and ours. If you won’t fight them, then get out of the way. Because no truly democratic people can tolerate a leader who’s not willing to defend the country from a barbarian invasion.
More:
The Hill, Republicans, health care advocates have dim hopes for healthcare summit
Seminal/Jason Rosenbaum, What will Republicans bring to the summit except No?
Update II:
Greg Sargent, The Republicans are coming! The Republicans are coming!
Update: Hello?
Plumbline/Greg Sargent, Obama Rebukes Boehner . . . Charges GOP wants to kill his initiatives
117 Comments
Indeed. Thank you, Scarecrow. Neither can they tolerate a leader who declines to uphold his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.
Why would the Barbarian-in-Chief want to fight the other barbarians?
Just keep hoping that someone in that administration knows more than the folks at FDL. That he is exhausting all possibilities to be bi partisan. That they can turn around and say we tried and tried and tried. Sure not looking good at this point.
Uno?
Tiddlywinks?
Tic-tac-toe?
Won’t do any damn good, but thanks.
Have I mentioned lately that I’m sick of him.
Pretending to be politically stupid is smart chess for fascists.
Yes. It. Is.
The collusion between gubmint and big business continues unabated. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
“The Republican/barbarian response, demanding the White House unilaterally abandon the Congressional health reform plans”
What would be the point – other than political theater – to have a meeting if you’ve already decided what you’re going to do beforehand? Obama already decided just to get together for a photo op so that means Obama already decided nothing substantive could come out of this.
The Returds will cheat anyway they can. And they are always coming up with new ways.
Fighting? Oh no. That’s what people with ideologies do. A very distasteful lot.
Had a will contest that played like this. Lasted 5 years because my last cave-in became their next bargaining position and my lawyers were like shit. Finally fired my 2nd lawyer before I could find a way out the morass. Ended with a settlement that didn’t even compensate them for their lawyer’s fees.
Obama and the rest of the DC Democrats fail to understand the Repugs on a foundational level.
They believe the
comitycomedy-provoking illusion that the Repugs think the Democrats are just the “loyal opposition”.That couldn’t be further from the real Repug thoughts.
The real Repug thoughts are embodied in the proverbial Cheneyesque mindset of: “All who are not with us are the Enemy!”
Yes, the Enemy!
The same as the Communists are the Enemy!
The same as the North Korean are the Enemy!
The same as the Terrorists are the Enemy!
The same as the Iranians are the Enemy!
Make no mistake about it Democrats, you are not viewed by Repugs as those friends across the aisle!
Democrats who ignore this reality do so at their own peril!
Hmmmm… is it the Vandals v Caesar redux?
to act like dems wanted to do anything but support the status quo is not supported by any facts wake-up
Seems like it’s stacking up that way.
Perhaps you are responding to another thread.
13-dimensional chess…it is like Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded.
You go first.
Augustus lost a couple legions to the Germanic tribes in one fell swoop iirc.
Mr Hope-y Change-y is begining to realise that America does not want communism.
Thank god for ‘the loyal opposition’
You could actually understand that comment? It makes no sense to me.
I think that this is a cage match that should have happened a year ago. But now that Obama has driven even conservative independents nuts with his affability and extending the hand of bipartisanship, more folks will be paying attention. So we will see what we will see: rope-a-dope, Russian defensive strategy, or plain foolishness. The key thing is that Obama has not folded. And there might be playing some conservative Democrats going on here as well.
It’s not over until it’s over. And it’s not chess, never was.
And no doubt some of the deals negotiated last spring get put on the table under the light of day. If Obama doesn’t bring them up, I guarantee that the Republicans will to try to paint him as a tool of corporate interests.
It might be old hat to us, but there are still a lot of folks who are not clear what has been going on. And bunches more who don’t understand where their own Congressmen and Senators stand on the issues. It is political theater but with the point of involving more people in knowing what is going on. It will be hyped. Hopefully it will occur live and when people are able to watch it on TV.
And there never was a plan A or plan B. Just the usual maneuvering. Seeing what happens. And muddling through or being slapped down.
Communism? LOL
Um, no. But I thought I’d be polite anyhow. I have this side game of trying to see if I can figure out how to be politely dissing of trolls or other seemingly weird comments.
*g* Sadly, there are bunches who don’t know who their congresscriters are.
no, look to drug import 2006 all dems voted for it and crowed, knowing bush would veto– 2008 30 vote against even the co-sponser.. it is kabuki theater– acting like they needed to work with repubs “or else could not get something done-bush 52 senators, got everything he wanted
In one teeny tiny ray of, erm, hope….Kantor seems to have walked back from the letter some, following criticism from….Bill Kristol? Megan McCain?
According to KO, both stated in public that the letter was not bipartisan, and called it “silly.”
Hmmm.
Don’t know what this means…
Nicely written and funny Scarecrow.
But shouldn’t it be obvious by now that Obama really is “playing along” with the barbarians and that the two parties are really a charade?
Obama himself isn’t that far away from mainstream Republican thinking: he’s the guy who also sat down in secret behind locked doors with the heads of insurance companies and Big Pharma to work on “insurance reform”. He’s the guy who escalated not only in Afghanistan but spread the war to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. He’s the guy who picked Rahm Emanuel (and wanted Judd Gregg on his cabinet too). He’s the guy who kept W’s man on at the Defense Department and promoted all of W’s generals.
What has he really achieved or fought for that consists of not only the democratic agenda but the agenda he campaigned on?
Obama is a poseur. It is foolish for people to look to him as some kind of savior or leader; he’s shown his true colors in the last 13 months.
That’s true, but they are also not likely to call their Congresscritters.
maybe he meant “fascism”.
they are, after all, interchangeable – so long as used in criticism of Obama.
fish that glock out yet?
Perhaps if you wrote coherently someone might be able to understand what you are saying.
You give him waaay too much credit.
Oughta leave that hunk o’ junk where it is.
The problem is, they are playing games when they should be doing something. Kick all their asses to the curb.
Hey, we’re not supposed to feed the trolls !
right where I told him to jam it downstream
Motherfuckers come up in here with that kind of handle someone needs to wax em
I seen that. *g*
This is the only comment on this thread that matters.
Coming from Brooklyn, I have no problem with the concept that when someone is trying to take you out, the best thing to do is take them out first.
But our Dem leaders always play like girls. “Let’s pretend we like each other.”
The Rethugs would gleefully chop our heads off if they got the opportunity. I know enough of them to be absolutely certain of that.
no doubt a troll
From the comment section of the Redding Record-Searchlight about yesterday’s Palin visit to Redding, CA.
Drive by shooter. Hits random threads.
LOL that’s gooooooooooooood.
Well, that’s an insult to girls.
Democrats do not fight like girls at all anyway. Girls may not physically attack each other, but they are relentless and vicious when provoked. Not married, eh?
Female VC kill ya just as dead as a male VC.
so we don’t know the difference between women and girls? damn
Choi duc, baby san caca dau gi
Aw, man, you know my Vietnamese sux. I only get part of it.
no sweat
SC, this president ever done anything of importance right, in your opinion?
The Democrats had (for all practical purposes) a veto-proof majority in both houses, so they NEVER needed any Republican votes.
The article’s “playing chess,m checkers’ analogy is rubbish.
Another crappy analysis.
THe ‘bamster and his CoS Emanuel could make deals with their opponents behind the scenes, in quiet privacy….if they knew how.
Being from the (disgustingly corrupt) Chicago machine, they never had to make deals with other parties…it was always bare-knuckled jam&ram, revenge and payback, spoils, etc. The state of Illinois is now in a very severe financial meltdown because of decades of this insitutional corruption.
Eli is upstairs!
Schrödinger’s Summit
LOL. Busted. Showing my age ;). But you know what I meant.
it’s gummint, not gubmint
rethugs, dimocranks, what’s the diff?
One team PRETENDS to be our champions. Both are committed to helping their corporate masters suck all the juice out of real people.
O brings a fife to a pie fight…
You sir,are absolutely correct!
More and more,I find myself agreeing with the ronulans, paultards,or whatever all the lefties are calling him these days
Shorter version:
Lead, follow, or get the f*ck out of the way!
That’s why I keep repeating here that our rallying cry should be PEOPLE vs. CORPORATIONS.
I believe all other ways of dividing up the political pie are just misleading distractions.
The lefties here (everyone but the trolls) usually refer to them as idjits or as morans.
True,it’s all political theater
Jane has pointed out, and I agree with her, that there is enough common ground between the left and the right that we could have a workable alliance on certain basic issues. I believe a desire to hear the truth from the govt is something we might agree on. Corporations never deal in truth. They use PR instead. The definition of public relations is “what you turn to when the truth won’t do.”
I have been looking for a place where you wont be banned for bashing both parties
a bit shallow, but time prohibits
I think you’d find many here would welcome you with that attitude. I do.
Just don’t advocate armed rebellion lol, we’re a bit sensitive about that for legal reasons. Nothing wrong with mentioning the Declaration of Independence, though ;).
My lights are perfectly focused these days, but I hope you can help a mutual friend sometime in the near future.
Right on, brother!
There is a time and place for everything!
These days, I’m just hoping I won’t run out of time before we get to the right place.
You ever see 13 year old girls fight? Savage.
You’ve pretty much summed up every important issue before congress this past year with the words above…
Very well written. What is so excruciating about watching Obama is not just that he makes a bad deal but it is the long involved process by which he arrives at it. And it isn’t just that it is a bad deal but how bad the deal is he finally gets. And it isn’t just that he does this once or a few times but again and again and again.
So what are we going to do about it?
I keep thinking of this as Honorius v. Alaric I.
Didn’t work out so well for Honorius, did it?
How ABOUT a nice game of chess?…OK, let’s play!….The whiners here say that the President “needs to lead!” but he’s “so naive!”…So what’s Scarecrow’s answer? Chess. We know how chess works. It’s a cerebral game played with a strategic plan and long range thought. So why is Obama being so “stupid” when the GOP is playing smashmouth? Well, let’s count the ways: 1. The 2/25 meeting gives everyone a chance to present real solutions and expose the GOP to delivering something beyond “talking points” without cost/benefit analysis. It allows a forum to include worthwhile ideas (Wyden/Collins) along with GOP’s predictable ideas (tort reform). 2. It pressures the Dems to come up with an agreed solution OR consider themselves “unfit to lead”. They have to be united on what’s going to be in the bill, sometime BEFORE February 25th—or else. They will have to walk into that meeting with everything decided (Stupak, Cadillac Tax,etc). 3. It takes the narrative from that “back room dealing”, “non transaparent” healthcare sausage making “reform” and transitions to a real policy debate (with objective judgement from CBO) which Americans WANT (according to today’s ABC/WaPo poll) 4. It gives some Dems a “bipartisan cover” for those who are exposed by this whole healthcare debate (not too many firedoglakers in Arkansas). The GOP can’t simply say “no” (gee, that Cantor/Boehner letter died pretty quickly, huh?) they have to prove they can “lead” if they want to takeover Congress this fall. After all, the GOP will get something added to HCR here…5. It’s a showcase for Leadership. Is that not what the anti-Obama crowd wants? 6. It can actually produce a “better” bill than either the current House of Senate version. This can happen with Dems coming to terms and/or adding sensible additions via this meeting 7. Now THIS one probably slipped by the bitter crew but—Obama has dropped that $900 bill ceiling limit. If there’s a revised bill, it will not be handcuffed by an artificial limitation IF it’s cost-justified ….Yes, Scarecrow’s correct, it’s ‘chess’. Of course many of the perpetually-bitter crowd here, would rather skip that game. It’s not as exciting as “they are the enemy” so pass the sledgehammer! It’s a “war” alright. It’s just one that’s being executed with a Sun Tzu approach, rather than that ‘ol “barbarian” playbook.
Great comment.
Of course, you know you’ll simply be dismissed as a robotic Obamatron, or “paid shill,” or return key-challenged, but know there are some readers here who appreciate the effort.
…the disappointment lies in that he promised to do “change” and we don’t see it coming. This chess game is a political charade and the new admin is very similar to the last one. Same wars, CIA, civil liberty attacks, bad economic policies, name it. Should have slammed dunked Health Reform with PO with 60 or 50…incapable of leading so far.
Just curious but is there any level or amount of evidence that will cause you to pull your support of Obama? Or is it that no matter how many times he fails you will always find an excuse or blame someone else?
Honorius, who was fundamentally an idiot, managed to survive until 423, whereas Alaric died soon after he sacked Rome in 410. In the meantime the Roman Empire in the west collapsed around him.
With an Honorius everyone loses, except maybe Honorius himself. George W. Bush was an Honorius.
Thanks for standing up with your 2×4, Scarecrow.
Hugh, Obama is still a “work in progress,” though the progress itself appears to be going rather badly and there is some question as to whether or not Obama is himself really in charge. Faith in the existing political system is of course not warranted, not especially now.
The people put you in charge and they expect you to produce results. They might dislike the process and they might dislike that you disregard them a bit and they might dislike other things.
They will never forgive you for not producing results.
Right now Democrats have been partially successful, but the HCR appears to be a train wreck. All that can save the Dems on that is to produce the goods.
Then, you don’t get accolades. You just get to keep trying. They give you a stay of execution a while. You have to keep producing the goods, even if the Republicans act like barbarians.
So, if the barbarians say ‘no’ to everything you had better find a way to get past them to serve the public. Else, you’re of no use to the public and they kick you out of office.
If Obama keeps up with the playing nice he won’t have any power outside of the White House after the Nov. elections. He has to hammer them into the ground daily and with glee.
The Republicans are trying to destroy America. They are trying to prevent Democrats from fixing things. And their breath smells bad.
Democrats have to pass the damn bill. And then do it again on the next thing and the next thing. And, there are a lot of things.
Bank Tax — We have to take back whatever they can’t give back…with interest. Let ‘em whine that they don’t like being dissed. Crybabies! Take their rattles too.
If he can show the public how retarded their HCR ideas are or how impossible they are to deal with, then it’s a win. Otherwise why waste time in the same room with them?
Dems don’t actually have to ‘fight’. We’ve got the power the public gave us. We just have to use it or take a beating from the public. We choose.
Not entirely true. They spent tons of money to save the economic system and tons of time to get HCR to where it might just pass.
Where we’ve failed was in preventing a lot of mortgage foreclosures — not necessarily Dems fault though.
Where we’ve failed was in preventing all job losses — definitely Bush’s fault.
Where we’ve failed was in letting Wall Streeters have bonuses — and it’s debatable whether that was good or not.
Where we’ve failed was in letting the HCR debate go on a few months too long because we didn’t have complete party unity in the Senate.
But, we’ve made some progress and we will continue while at the same time pounding on Republicans for standing in the way. If they would relent we might fix problems faster, so the TEA Partiers wouldn’t have so many complaints and so a lot fewer people might lose their homes (or worse) to foreclosure.
The Republicans are the enemy of every right-thinking American who wants us to fix our problems, pay our debts and stand on our own two feet again.
Obama never did offer communism and always did realize American didn’t want it.
Your strawman is burning, go catch him.
Drug importation was sacrificed (at that time) to advance the HCR bill. Not kabuki at all.
BTW, when did they pass drug importation or HCR under Bush?
They didn’t? Well, I’ll be. Useless Republicans.
To find a solution which will save governments, businesses and individuals money. What did Bush ever do for them?
Pakistan is troubling. Shouldn’t be any Americans there. Must be Repugs.
He escalated in Afghanistan because Bush wasn’t getting the job done.
Al Qaeda attacked from Yemen. We just responded. Somalia?
He’s the guy who … promoted all of W’s generals.
Since when are U.S. military general Bush’s? Seems to me they’re just generals and they serve all civilian leaders. You know something else?
Don’t forget Gates served under Carter too. He’s non-partisan and good at it.
do tell… I’ll check that old neglected email account.
far too many people in Congress don’t know how to do any of those things
I think it’s because of the issues and what’s at stake. If it were naming post offices…
Scarecrow, you nailed it. Great piece.
Not just Republicans, plenty of Democrats are just as culpable.
fantastic post, very much to the point and quite succinct as well. That it was funny was whipped cream on the latte. Terrific as always, Scarecrow.
But alas, “So what are we going to do about it?” as Nov2 asked.
It’s all well and good to speculate about primary challengers, but I don’t want to wait that long.
I wonder what Obama and company thought about the weekend article about the Chicago 4.
Blessings,
Barak Obama does an excellent impersonation of Neville Chamberlain. It’s appeasement all the time. Should a health “care” bill actually be passed I expect him to take several pages of what will undoubtedly be a 3,000 page bill and wave it before the camera’s proclaiming solemnly, “We have health care in our time.”
This isn’t chess–it’s basketball. That’s Obama’s game.
The Democrats are the Washington Generals to the Rebublican Globetrotters.
They keep pulling our shorts down.
We keep playing.
Seriously, is there anything Obama won’t do to get on T.V.?
And notice how they have increased these televised appearances/lectures/campaign events as his popularity has plummeted? Because they know the only thing they have in him is a likeable speaker. His numbers go up with every scripted appearance, because he can debate and sound rational. But let’s face it, he ain’t running the show! Rahm (Wall Street’s appointed butt- boy) and Axelrod (who disappointingly, appears only to be an expert in how to win an election), are!
The 2012 campaign has begun! No point in gnashing our teeth and rending our garments over every pointless appearance. When the key points of HCR were delayed until 2013, you could see the gun being held to our heads. Vote for us, or the American People get it!
Never mind that, let’s play total nuclear annihilation. Ah, the simpler times of “War Games”.
Glock .45? A plastic pistol makes sense in the waistband of a reactionary who’s always wetting his pants out of fear.
The goal of the job being?
Attacked who exactly?
Anyone that hasn’t read articles around the strong Republican and conservative bias within the Armed Forces leadership probably missed the same bias within the leadership of the Catholic Church as well.
As they/it says in War Games:
Why not. a nice. game. of. thermo nuclear war… ?
and everyone knows once the program is running you need to finish the game and it won’t let you switch to chess.
keep watching the kabuki theater. when have the repubs ever said they wanted import. they are not a viable choice. but tpo avoid answering why— all voted for,yet when it could pass they 30 voted against–YOU REALLY DONT GET IT? A CHILD WOULD UNDERSTAND THAT. it was sacrificed because it had 80% popularity, public option 60%, anti-trust85% your arguement is adverse to the hard facts. keep following they are counting on it
well put
I somehow destroyed my formatting, so the edited post is below.
edit did not work so well…
I think I “figured out” (I must be so smart….) their strategy now on HIR (the new one, don’t think they were driving here the entire time…but gotta get out of the ditch):
- Let the Repugs be the party of No, but take note of their “demands” (the Dummyrats screwed this up, but the Repugs say some pretty dumb shit and its all on tape)
- Put them in a box voting even against their own items & ass kissing more than Dummyrats on big biz
- Use reconsilliation and say everything they demanded is in the bill and still not a single one will vote for it (but hopefully watered down or in a good way).
- Hope the bill does not suck so bad as to bring down their party, or weaker America
Yes, I suppose that is really just saying they will use reconciliation. In any case Maddow laid down Sen. Slim Boner’s 5 big points and they are all in one bill or the other.
And yes, there is only a small chance they will use the process (or manage or get on board the people that drive the “process”) to actually do it right
Wyden and the dems are really pushing 25-FEB, and I really think a few 100K people marching on that do would have an impact.
That being said you will have 5% of that in TeaBaggers and the networks that are selling the other message will pretend that protest was either “bigger” or “more ‘merican”. So I hope they have planned the entire process including ID’ing risk and what they do if certain risks manifest.
He said 25-FEB about 7 times, including 3 times in two sentence fragments.
“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
Sen. Thin DeMint
20-JUL-2009
“It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘uncle’”
Sen. Thin DeMint
FEB-2010
(Do these b’tards have anything to contribute, any self-firing neurons? People are depressed at all this driving off a cliff charade)
I also think (assuming the kabuki has some remote relationship to reality) that Obama thought he could be a tactician or something.
That after Bush he would show that Dems can be dis-passionate technocrats (so far from those hippy socialists) and run things effectivly.
But he is also the leader of the party, and there is a reality.
What this meant is that Obama offered to “half” the baby… and everyone is taking him up on it. You could argue that the Repugs are the ones who want to “half” the baby and Dems are a bit more responsible – but thats not the media story… and again you would have to argue that (and likely lose).
It does not only continue, it grows. At this point its like a Hydra.
The game was last year and with an extra vote. If its chess why allow all your pawns to be taken out and rely on yourself and couple of bishops?
I grant that its -possible- that he was marshelling his force and planning in his first year to point things more in his direction, perhaps run out some red herrings to flush out a few % of the plants. The more simple explanation should be looked at first – he does not want to, or can’t.
If your handle is correct you may be in for some pangs later this year. Some other have exerienced these pangs decades ago, or years ago, or months ago.
Everyone thinks they are oppressed. Try going back in time to 3 or 4 months after Obama was elected and look at how was attacked and escorted from the blogs….
I agree that people are quick to try and paint people in or out, but its debate (sometimes) – its not everyone. In many cases its like Bush tactics and things Repugs do to dissenters, but again its still just a subset of people.
I had someone attack my fucking handle…apparently they had “noticed” that “trolls” often have an “x” at the end of their name….
Take a look at the posts about how Obama is going to be great and support him – if they include attacks on people, well they might draw a response from people who have contrary opinions.
The Obama box is that “most” people don’t believe what he says anymore and he must produce results. Pity to given that he is such a good speaker.
One good thing for him I guess is that in all these polls there are 25 – 40% of people who are -never- going to vote for him anyway.
Obama needs to replace Larry, Timmy and Rahm with people who know how to play chess.
Otherwise the public is going to knock over the chess board in a manner that incumbant Democrats will not like.
“Dear Mr. President: Your Administration and the whole concept of government acting in the public interest are under siege from a mob of barbarians. They’re at war with you and with us.”
And they’re doing most of their damage to those least able to defend themselves, but come to think of it, I’m not sure the President isn’t really on their side and that the daily dance isn’t just a charade to confuse most of us into thinking: well, maybe, there are two teams when the reality is IF there are two teams neither one of them represent the vast majority of the American people.